How to side step conflict and find common ground with a one-page document

The one-page document – a way of creating communication, contribution and collaboration amongst work teams with competing interests

How do you get work teams to talk to each other and agree on a course of action when they come from different backgrounds, have different expertise, different goals and can see no benefit in talking to each other?

Some time ago I was faced with just such a situation and made good use of the ‘one-page document’ to establish common ground. Fisher and Ury first outlined this concept in their ground-breaking classic, Getting to Yes.

You may find this process useful in your own organization if you are facing major changes and want to encourage greater collaboration amongst the teams and people who will be involved.

The key to a successful one-page document is to develop a theme or story of concern to all the potential stakeholders. This is a story that acknowledges and includes individual stories within a larger framework.

For example, a colleague and myself will shortly be presenting an Open Space event on the theme, Building Communities – Issues and Opportunities. The theme is designed to allow anyone with an interest in building communities to be able to make a contribution.

In the situation I am about to describe there were four separate teams, all nominally within the same department. However, their backgrounds, interests, and political clout within the department were very different and there was little or no history of interaction.

Creating the first draft

In the first phase of creating the one-page document, I interviewed individually as many of the members from each of the teams as were willing to be heard. (This activity was made voluntary as we wanted to encourage people to exercise their power of choice. Not surprisingly, some did this by expressing cynicism and declining to be involved.)

From the first round of interviews I developed a list of key issues for each group. This were incorporated into one document to give the first draft.

Creating the second draft

The second phase was to look at how the key issues might be restated from the standpoint of the overall goals and values of the department. This involved incorporating the concerns of each of the four teams into a larger framework of potentially shared departmental concerns. For example, ‘ensure consistency in criteria for annual performance appraisals’ might become, ‘Demonstrate high standards of professional ethics by ensuring consistency in criteria for annual performance appraisals’.

Additionally, other apparently diverse concerns might also be grouped in the category of demonstrating high standards of professional ethics. This gave the second draft.

Creating the third draft

The third phase was to check out the acceptability of the second draft with all the people involved to ensure that they were able to recognise their issues and concerns in their restated form and agree to the relevance of the enlarged categories. If people were not happy with the way the document was expressed, then I worked with them until we were both satisfied. This became the third draft.

By the time we reached the third draft, a number of common shared concerns had begun to emerge that could be expressed as a theme. The manager in charge of the teams was able to call a successful meeting of the whole department around the emergent theme. People talked and listened to each other and at the end of the day, several issues of contention had been tackled and joint working parties formed to continue the action.

Processes such as this have many benefits, including:

• People feel they are being listened to. For some people, this may be a novel experience and can make a deep impression.

• People see their personal concerns acknowledged and contributing to the bigger picture, evidence that their ideas are valued.

• Seeing others’ ideas in writing beside their own and separated from individual personalities, makes it easier to consider these ideas on their merits and given a more objective hearing.

• The articulation of common ground and shared concerns encourages increased interaction and builds trust.

• The final one-page document, generated through joint inputs, becomes a valuable ongoing tool to monitor and assess progress.

To find out more about how a one-page document could benefit your organisation, contact me, , or phone 61 3 9525 3409.

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Transformasia Pty Ltd
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Tel: +61 3 9525 3409
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